The lie about James Talarico spread like wildfire

For nine days, James Talarico was not seen. The 37-year-old Austin native is seeking to become the first Democrat to be elected to the Texas Senate since 1988, and his absence immediately led to speculation.

That he had caught the flu was an explanation his opponents didn't buy.

- Where is James Talarico? asked Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton during a campaign meeting with Donald Trump.

On social media, flight logs began to circulate, showing that a private plane had taken off from Austin at the same time Talarico had stopped being seen in public. The plane had landed in Ohio, at an airport that was near a mental hospital. Although there was no indication that he was on board, it was enough for suspicion to begin to take hold.

On Friday, James Talarico finally resurfaced when he visited a music festival in Austin.

- It was smart of him to take it easy. "We politicians often get colds when we're campaigning because we meet so many people and it's important to rest," said George Morales, a local politician from Southeast Austin whom I met Saturday and who knows Talarico.

But the rumors did not die out. On Sunday, Nick Sortor, a right-wing debater with 1.7 million followers on X, posted an audio recording that was said to prove that James Talarico had been committed to the mental hospital in Ohio.

In the recording, whose authenticity has been questioned and which according to the originator was recorded late on October 10, a woman who allegedly works at the clinic says that James Talarico was discharged that evening.

The 37-year-old's campaign office denied the rumors and wrote that he had been at home the entire time. Furthermore, since the recording was from October 10 and Talarico had been seen in Austin on October 9, the data did not add up.

Even so, Trump adviser Stephen Miller (1.7 million followers on X), right-wing debater Laura Loomer (1.9 million followers), podcaster Benny Johnson (4.1 million followers) and Elon Musk (241 million followers) reshared the post or parts of the data.

On Sunday night, the mental hospital released a statement saying they had not treated a politician named James Talarico. It was a post that the 37-year-old shared with the words "I haven't even been to Ohio".

But that didn't stop the right-wing profiles from continuing to question the sick leave.

“Can you clarify if James Talarico has been at your facility for the past nine days,” asked former Fox News host Megyn Kelly (3.6 million followers), as she felt the word “treat” did not rule out his having been there.

Finally, Talarico's campaign office sent footage from the politician's surveillance camera to the New York Times. The newspaper reviewed the material and wrote on Monday that the 37-year-old had been at home between October 1 and 9.

The alleged mental hospital conversation has now been played 7.5 million times. Whether that will affect the election, where Talarico leads in most opinion polls, remains to be seen.

At the moment I am in the city of Laredo on the border with Mexico and when I go down to the reception to have dinner I meet a border policeman who lives in the same hotel. He sits at a table listening to a podcast discussing Talarico's absence.

- What do you think, was he just sick? I ask.

- I don't know what to believe, says the man. But there is much in his story that does not add up.